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33-643: Development of the weapon began in 1974 under the supervision of Colonel José María Jiménez Alfaro (who would later become the director of CETME). The Ameli was officially unveiled in 1981 and after undergoing exhaustive military trials was adopted into service in 1982 as the standard squad-level support weapon of the Spanish Army under the designation MG 82 . The Ameli was manufactured at the Empresa Nacional Santa Bárbara factory (now General Dynamics Santa Bárbara Sistemas ) in A Coruña until 2013, when

66-496: A 100 or 200-round disposable plastic container, which is then clipped to the left side of the receiver . This ammunition container has a transparent rear wall that allows the gunner to monitor ammunition levels visually. Belt movement is carried out by a pawl-type feeding mechanism, which was modeled on the MG 42's feed system. Spent cartridge casings are ejected downward through a chute in the receiver. The quick-change type air-cooled barrel

99-418: A centerline, while the slots of the body incorporate a 5-, 10-, and 15-degree twisted helix design, which eliminates up to 99% of visible muzzle flash by having the flash break up at multiple locations and angles. The Noveske Rifleworks KX-3 is a flash suppressor intended for use on shorter barreled rifles and aids in reliability. The back pressure generated through this type of flash suppressor helps to cycle

132-550: A height adjustment feature and is mounted to the perforated barrel heat shroud at the muzzle end. The light machine gun can be deployed with the bipod, on a vehicle mount or on a static tripod mount. Santa B%C3%A1rbara Sistemas Santa Bárbara Sistemas is a Spanish defense contractor based in Madrid , integrated under General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS), a business unit of General Dynamics which consolidated in one structure all European subsidiaries of GDLS . It

165-532: A serious problem during night-time combat, as the flash would impair the shooter's night vision and would also make the shooter's position more apparent. Originally limited to "special purpose" roles, it was now expected that all infantry weapons with shorter barrels would experience this problem, and thereby be of limited use in low-light situations. Flash suppressors became common on late- World War II and later assault rifle designs, and are almost universal on these weapons today. Some designs such as those found on

198-414: A shot is fired, the bolt head absorbs the recoil impulse from the ignited cartridge through the base of the empty casing and transmits this rearward pressure onto the rollers forcing them out of their sockets and inward at a mechanical disadvantage. The rollers then come into contact with inclined surfaces on the locking piece and propel it backwards at a speed that is approximately 1.5x greater than that of

231-813: Is delivering the prototypes of the UK's Scout SV AFV through General Dynamics in the UK. General Dynamics acquired the company from the Spanish government 25 July 2001. SBS was founded in 1960 by bringing together factories of the Spanish Ministry of Defense under the Instituto Nacional de Industria . These included arsenals in Sevilla , Oviedo , Trubia and A Coruna . SBS was denationalised by Spain and acquired by General Dynamics Europe in July 2001. In June 2024 SBS announced

264-421: Is equipped with a slotted flash suppressor . The barrel has a chrome-lined bore with 6 right-hand grooves and a 178 mm (1:7 in) rifling twist rate that is optimized for use with heavier SS109 5.56×45mm NATO rounds. A barrel with a 305 mm (1:12 in) twist rate designed specifically to stabilize the lightweight M193 cartridge is also available. The chamber portion of the barrel has flutes that assist in

297-412: Is intended to reduce visible flash, a muzzle brake is designed to reduce recoil inherent to large cartridges and typically does not reduce visible flash. Pre-20th century rifle designs tended to have longer barrels than modern rifles. A beneficial side effect of the long barrel is that the propellant is completely burned before the bullet leaves the barrel, usually resulting only in a puff of smoke from

330-514: Is one of the primary suppliers of the Military of Spain and is responsible for the assembly of heavy vehicles such as the Spanish Army's Leopard 2E main battle tank and the Pizarro infantry combat vehicle . The primary lines of business of Santa Bárbara Sistemas are armoured vehicles , special and amphibious vehicles, weapons systems, munitions and missiles, and Research & Development . The company

363-419: Is opened only after the bullet has exited the barrel and gas pressures inside the bore have dropped to within safe limits. The Ameli fires from an open bolt and uses a striker firing mechanism (in which the bolt and internally channeled firing pin perform the role of a striker). The trigger mechanism permits fully automatic fire only but the rate of fire can be adjusted by using bolts of varying weight, like in

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396-407: Is to reduce the chances that the shooter will be blinded in low-light shooting conditions. Contrary to popular belief, it is only a minor secondary benefit if a flash suppressor reduces the intensity of the flash visible to the enemy. A flash suppressor is different from a muzzle brake , although they are typically mounted in the same position and sometimes confused with each other. While the former

429-643: The AKS-74U serve a dual-role as a gas expansion chamber helping the shortened weapon's gas system function properly. Military flash suppressors are designed to reduce the muzzle flash from the weapon to preserve the shooter's night vision , usually by diverting the incandescent gases to the sides, away from the line of sight of the shooter, and to secondarily reduce the flash visible to the enemy. Military forces engaging in night combat are still visible when firing, especially with night vision gear, and must move quickly after firing to avoid receiving return fire. Limiting

462-708: The Lee–Enfield , the rifle No. 5 Mk I variant, intended for use in the Pacific (the jungles of Malaya). More modern solutions tend to use a "basket" with several slits or holes cut in it, as seen on the M16 and other small-bore weapons. Cone-shaped flash eliminators are also evident on the ZB vzor 26 machine gun , and on the turret-mounted aircraft machine guns of British WWII heavy bombers, which were used mostly at night. Duckbill flash suppressors have upper and lower "prongs" and direct gases to

495-449: The M16 rifle used a unique flash suppressor sometimes called a flash or sound moderator for its 10-inch barrel. This device is 4.2 inches long and was designed primarily as a counterbalance measure, as the shorter barrel made the weapon unwieldy. This device reduced flash signature greatly and sound signature slightly, making the normally louder short barreled rifle sound like a longer barreled M16A1. Unlike conventional suppressors ,

528-570: The Ameli uses the delayed blowback method of operation with a fixed barrel and a pair of rollers which retard the rearward movement of the bolt. This mechanism was employed in CETME's Model A, B, C and Model L series of rifles, and also in the Heckler & Koch G3 battle rifle , HK33 assault rifle and MP5 series of submachine guns . Similarities with the 7.62mm Model C and 5.56mm Model L rifles extend to

561-562: The M16A2 design makes the device function as a compensator. Both designs require indexing with a crush washer which increases flash signature. The Vortex Flash Hider is a design developed in 1984, with a patent secured in 1995. The Vortex is somewhat reminiscent of the original "three-prong flash hider" found on the original Vietnam-era M16 . However, the Vortex is more robust and makes use of four solid tines, which are equally spaced and angled 6° from

594-422: The MG 3. The lighter bolts will produce the maximum rate of fire (1,200 rounds/min) while a heavier bolt results in a rate of fire of approximately 850–900 rounds/min. The weapon features a cross-bolt type safety that disables the sear when pressed into the "safe" position. The machine gun is fed from an open-link disintegrating M27 ammunition belt that can be strung loosely from the feed tray or placed inside

627-527: The White Sound Defense FOSSA-556. The U.S. military A2 muzzle device is technically a hybrid device: it has vents that are biased upwardly to reduce muzzle rise . Flash suppressors are seen as a "military" feature, and semi-automatic long guns with flash suppressors were defined as Military-Style Semi-Automatics in 1992, requiring a permit. Such weapons have since been prohibited. Flash suppressors were seen as "military" features and were on

660-662: The XM177's moderator has no internal baffles and does not reduce the weapon's sound signature to subsonic levels; despite this, because it alters the sound level of the weapon, the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has declared these moderators to be suppressors and regulates their civilian purchase in the United States. There are also devices referred to as hybrids that function as both flash suppressors and muzzle rise / recoil compensators , such as

693-434: The amount of powder to what the length of a barrel can burn is one possible solution, but differences between individual cartridges mean that some cartridges will always have too much powder to be completely consumed, and the reduced powder load produces a lower projectile velocity. Muzzle flash can be controlled by using cartridges with a faster-burning propellant, so that the propellant gases will already have begun to cool by

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726-483: The barrel can be removed and replaced in 5 seconds. The Ameli is fitted with a molded polymer stock, bipod and iron sights that consist of a forward post and a rear aperture sight contained in the carry handle assembly with 300, 600, 800 and 1,000 m range settings. The weapon's design makes extensive use of sheet metal stampings; both the receiver, barrel shroud and trigger housing are fabricated from steel pressings and then welded . The quick-detach bipod has

759-399: The bolt head, thereby increasing the bolt's inertia and providing a delay in the blowback sequence. The relatively short initial rear displacement of the bolt head immediately after firing and the calculated delay eliminate the probability of a premature case extraction from the chamber (beyond the thick-walled base of the chamber) that would result in the spent casing bursting as the breech

792-406: The extraction sequence; once gas pressure in the bore drops to a safe level, recycled gases fill the flutes surrounding the cartridge casing, loosening the case from the chamber walls while residual pressure in the barrel forces it back to be ejected downward and forward. A fixed carrying handle is positioned above the barrel near the chamber, and aids in barrel changes when the barrel becomes too hot;

825-509: The factory was closed. The Ameli is an automatic weapon that externally resembles the 7.92×57mm Mauser MG 42 machine gun of World War II but has more in common with the MG 45 and its post-war variant, the West German 7.62×51mm NATO MG 3 . However, unlike the MG 42's roller-locked short recoil operating principle (where the barrel and bolt recoil together a short distance before unlocking),

858-427: The flash by rapidly cooling the gases as they leave the end of the barrel. Although the overall amount of burning propellant is unchanged, the density and temperature are greatly reduced, as is the brightness of the flash. A number of different flash suppressing designs have been used over the years. The simplest is a cone placed on the end of the barrel, which was used on the late-World War II jungle-combat versions of

891-416: The interchangeability of certain parts. The heart of the operating system is the bolt assembly, which consists of a bolt head, locking piece and two cylindrical rollers, which upon chambering a round, are displaced outwards by angled surfaces in the forward pressing locking piece and into notches in the barrel extension. The geometry of the walls in the barrel extension and the locking piece ensure that once

924-479: The list of federally defined features that could cause a rifle to be defined as illegal if the lower receiver was manufactured after the effective date of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban that went into effect in 1994 in the United States. This ban expired in 2004, although some states, such as California , Massachusetts , Maryland , New York , and New Jersey , have similar bans in place restricting

957-404: The muzzle. However, if the same weapon's barrel is "cut down" (shortened), as is common in cavalry and jungle-combat adapted versions, the bullet would often leave the barrel before the powder was completely consumed, resulting in a bright flash from the muzzle. When barrel lengths were dramatically decreased with the introduction of various shorter-barreled rifles and carbines, the flash became

990-446: The reactivation of its artillery gun barrel manufacturing capacity at Trubia. Flash suppressor A flash suppressor , also known as a flash guard , flash eliminator , flash hider , or flash cone , is a device attached to the muzzle of a rifle that reduces its visible signature while firing by cooling or dispersing the burning gases that exit the muzzle, a phenomenon typical of carbine -length weapons. Its primary intent

1023-628: The rifle. Noveske patterned this design on the muzzle brake found on the Soviet AKS-74U carbine, where it was explicitly used for this purpose. Essentially it is the cone-shaped suppressor of the AKS-74U within a chamber. Some other examples of cone-shaped hiders are found on the Bren machine gun, the .303 rifle No 5 Mk 1 " jungle carbine " and some models of the RPK and German MG3 . The XM177 Commando variant of

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1056-432: The sides. Early M60 machine guns and some Armalite AR-10 , Armalite AR-15 and early M16 models featured this type of flash suppressor. One disadvantage is that the prongs can become entangled with vines or other natural vegetation and objects in the field. "Birdcage type" flash suppressors still have prongs, but feature a ring on the front to prevent vegetation entanglement between the prongs. The closed bottom port of

1089-418: The time they exit the barrel, reducing flash intensities. Faster-burning powders, however, produce less projectile velocity, which reduces the accuracy, due to introducing a more parabolic bullet flight path in place of a "flat" trajectory, while also reducing the lethality of the weapon by reducing the distance of the projectile's penetration of the target. Flash suppressors reduce, or in some cases eliminate,

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